SA childcare centre closes for three months after 'very serious' allergy incident

Edge Early Learning Gawler East closed for second time after child taken to hospital Mon 6 Jul 2026 at 5:16pm In short: The Education Standards Board (ESB) has directed the Edge Early Learning centre in Gawler East to shut its doors for the second time this year. A child was taken to hospital last week after food containing a known allergen was served to them at the centre. What's next? The centre will close for three months, while the ESB says it has serious concerns about the organisation's ability to manage allergens going forward. South Australia's childcare regulator has closed an Edge Early Learning centre north of Adelaide for a second time this year after a child was served food with an allergen the centre knew about. Edge Early Learning said a young child at its Gawler East centre was taken to hospital on Thursday after they were given meatballs containing soy from an alternative supplier without staff first checking the ingredients. Thechief executive of South Australia's Education Standards Board (ESB), Benn Gramola, said the board had issued an "emergency action notice". "This matter is very serious and I have serious concerns about the ability for this service to manage allergens going forward,"Mr Gramola said. "We are still continuing to investigate this matter and will continue to look into what led up to this issue and how we are going to address this going forward." He said the ESB had taken "swift and immediate action" and would not rule out further action against the centre if deemed necessary. The board has directed the centre to close for two weeks, but Edge Early Learning managing director and CEO Chris Chambers said herequested a three-month closure to confront process and policy challenges at the centre. "We think it's the responsible thing for us to close for a full reset in the way that a two-week closure would not," Mr Chambers told 891 ABC Adelaide. "It also gives families some certainty." Mr Chambers said all families who use the centre were contacted over the weekend and informed about the closure. "Our team is following up today and this morning with looking at what alternative capacity we've got at nearby centres to accommodate as many children and families as we possibly can," he said. He said alternative care arrangements were not anticipated to be made before Wednesday. "We want to make sure where alternative care is found it's suitable," he said. "We've also got to do things from a practical perspective, such as make sure all medication records, allergy records and the like are appropriately transferred across and the teams at their new centres are fully briefed." Persistent procedural errors Mr Chambers said the incident occurred when a "substitute supplier" provided the centre with the meatballs and normal assessment processes were not followed. "The chef unfortunately missed the cut-off for the usual supplier of some meatballs and got some meatballs from an alternative supplier and unfortunately missed the step of checking the ingredients in those meatballs," he said. "Unfortunately, it was fed to a child who was allergic to that item and the child had a reaction and was ultimately sent to hospital with their parents. "They were not admitted and I'm very pleased to report — having been in discussions with the family over the weekend — that the child is quite well and bouncing around as normal. "It's a critical step and a shocking error by an otherwise very experienced chef." He said the chef was "absolutely devastated". "We are all quite devastated by this but are focused on not just supporting the family and doing what we can, but working to make sure processes are followed next time." Mr Chambers said. Edge Early Learning opened its first childcare centres in Queensland in 2017, bought 17 existing childcare centres in South Australia in 2022, and now runs 24 across Adelaide and regional SA. In April, the ESB ordered the same Gawler East centre to shut for two weeks over poor allergen management. "It was administrative last time, so there was no allergen that was served incorrectly," Mr Chambers said. "[It was] the same chef but a different part of the process fell down previously. "We have a three-step sign-off process once the food is prepared, and it was that sign-off process that was not followed appropriately last time." Also in April, the ESB also directed the Edge Early Learning centre in Munno Para West to close for three months after seven incidents of children being left unsupervised. Another Edge Early Learning centre at Plympton, in Adelaide's south-west, was forced to close twice last year over inadequate supervision of children. Acting Premier Kyam Maher said South Australian parents should expect very high standards of safety and quality, and said compliance checks across centres had increased "400 per cent". "I think people expect the strictest compliance when people are caring for the most precious thing in their life," he said.